Batch 374 | Magic Hat Brewing Company

0 characters.
We love reviews! Turn your rating into one with ≥ 150 characters. Awesome. Thanks for the review!

In English, explain why you're giving this rating. Your review must discuss the beer's attributes (look, smell, taste, feel) and your overall impression in order to indicate that you have legitimately tried the beer. Nonconstructive reviews may be removed without notice and action may be taken on your account.

More User Reviews:

Starting my Memorial day off with this one,a great pour a deep bronze with a very well retained slightly off white head that has great staying power.Big pine and grapefruit in the nose with a nearly as big caramel malt base to hold up to it,hops are not as prevelant on the palate but still make there presence known very nicely,sweet caramel and biscuit malt melds into a citrusy lingering finish.To me its like a left coast red big on hops for the style,great to get the day started with this one watching the Tigers against the evil empire and then some bbq later in the day that this beer will accompany.

T&M- Very smooth with a slightly creamy medium body. Prolific hop profile works on the taste buds with a snappish bitterness and a complex layer of oily flavor ... citrus oil, soft spruce, ruby red grapefruit. Ghost like diacetyl from the yeast, bit from mushy ripe fruit as well. Maltiness flails out with a steely, toasted and grain laden mix but the hops still seem to rise above without a problem.

D- Is this HIPA's little brother? Magic Hat certainly has their act together and 374 is proof. This beer has a permanent home in my beer fridge now.

This is one sassy looking red. Nice oily-soapy looking orange tinted cream head. Great retention and bits of spotty lace stick. Body is straight up orange red color and clear as far as I can see. Smells like a simcoe hoppy explosion. Mmmmm very nice. Pine resin, candy orange citrus, along with some buttery ringwood yeast I think. Sweet caramel malts hold full underneath the massive hops. Taste is delicously hopped with orange and resinous pine with a solid malty base. Mouth is slick, slightly gritty/resiny and smooth. Hopfully drinkable.

Had this on tap at Eli's. Pours a dark red mahogany with white average head. The smell is light with some hops and sweet malt. The taste is alittle sugar "sticky" with sweet malt and a hop aftertase. This tasted much better than I expected. The m/f is medium with a citrus hop aftertaste. This is a damn good beer. Keep up the good work Magic Hat.

Wow! What is this hoppy concoction before me? I could smell the hops when I opened the cap... fruity, citrusy, floral, piney... quite impressive. The distinctive grapefruit, orange, pineapple and melon notes really pull you in.

It pours a hazy copper-orange with a ruby cast and golden highlights beneath a frothy head of antique-white that holds well and leaves some very nice, thin, craggy lace about the glass.

A second whiff reveals that in addition to the citrusy hops there's also a soft, sweetish note of bready malt underneath.

The flavor delivers the hops that the nose promised: upfront mid-palate, at the swallow, and in the finish. Very nice. The sweet, underlying bready and lightly caramelish malt acts as a springboard to propel the fruity hops forward while a solid bitterness keeps a tether on it from below.

The mouthfeel is smooth and lightly creamy, with a dextrinous medium body and a moderate, seemingly natural, very fine-bubbled carbonation.

Quiet nice! This reminds me a lot of some of the hoppier beers that English brewers are doing now with American hops. Well worth trying!

This brew pours the color of a strong tea, dark in color but very clear. Nice tall head that fades to a very nice lace to the end of the glass. Aroma caught me off guard (in a good way0. Hops! but a nice aroma to it. Spice, pine and orange in the mix that comes to my nose, not overpowering but complementing to the brew. The taste is smooth and very nice. The zing from the hops is all up front but the beer gives a slight change to roasted malt in the middle but the flavor is taken back over by the hops.

I really enjoyed this brew. It has a nice mixture of flavors with a different side (type) of hops that I havent had or had this way yet. Easy to drink, very enjoyable. I wonder if this will be produced without being in a mixer?

A - Light copper color, nice head retention. Slight cloud hanging around the top edge, and very slight carbonation evident. Upgraded for Belgian lacing on the glass as the beer goes down my gullet,
S - Citrusy hop aroma, which to me signals Cascade,
T - Slight bitter hops, seems typical for an American pale ale taste profile,
M - Nice hop bite, and a little more alcohol warmth than expected. Kind of fizzy on the palate,
D - Enjoyable session beer, and another nice offering by the people at Magic Hat.

Pours a deep red featuring a bit of chill haze and a pillowy thick, creamy head that leaves some pretty solid lacing. Aaaahhh...super thick, resinous hops to the nose meld with a brown sugar sweetness. Simple but very tantalizing. Flavor follows the smell to an extent: bold, fleshy citrus hops, dank cannabis buds, and a finishing malty sweetness. Possibly a hint of diacetyl buried under all that flavor. Smooth, easy bitterness and a medium mouthfeel.

This is a super, deliciously hoppy West coast style red. Not only a "rave" for sure, but one of the best beers Magic Hat has ever put out. Wicked good.

Great mystery beer from Magic Hat. Good looking light amber reddish/brown. Decent head and lacing. Nice potent smell of fresh malt and hops. Very nicely balanced. Great aftertaste with a touch of citrus in the background. Hops are pumped into this more than most Amber/red ales. Increases taste and drinkability. This beer flows in perfect harmony from start to finish. A great job by MH and most certainly a Rave. PLEASE keep this one, guys. Up there with Rogue's Red/Amber as my favorite of the style. I guess i"m a huge sucker for hopped beers that don't go overboard. They really mesh well with my taste buds.

The aroma is surprisingly nice and piney. Yum. There are some floral and citrus notes as well as some earthy malt notes in the back of this one.

The flavour leans more toward the citrus side of things but definitely retains the piney hop feel that was so strong in the aroma. There's a bitter caramel taste to the middle that mixes nicely with the hops and a touch of malt (and some spice?) at the finish. Mouthfeel is sharp and biting (but a bit oily at times) and very nice.

This was quite a bold surprise from Magic Hat. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It definitely needs to be kept around and is by far the best of the "Batch" series that I've tasted. Pick it up and vote to ensure that this one sticks around.

A friend of mine gave me this bottle, with a warning that it "tasted like fresh-cut grass." I had to try it at least once....

"Enjoy by September (assuming '06)"

Bottle cap says, "Kindlessness = Mindlessness"

Pours a dark, clear amber with a rich-looking yellowish-white head. And yes, there's a heavy hop aroma, not grass. To me, it's a meld of spicy and grapefruity hops. I'm guessing both American and European hops were used in this beer, but I could be wrong.

The nose fakes you out with its hoppiness, because the palate is not all that bitter as you'd expect. It's a light, lingering bitterness with oily citrus notes. The more you drink, the more you notice it. All of this is featured over a grainy, slightly toasted malt background. Medium bodied, and slightly sticky.

Much thanks to grassrootsvt for this special bottle via Todd Haire at Magic Hat... Appears an amber color with a small white head and scattered lace that sort of resembles the Hi.P.A. only better. Smell is of plenty of dry hops(all Simcoe) with piney & orange mix. Ringwood yeast is evident in the aromas with mild butter notes. Taste is of the above aromas with mild caramel notes and a touch of vanilla. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with some sweetness that fades to an even balanced bitter brew. Not a bad outing from our friends in South Burlington.

Batch 374 pours a clear and brilliant amber with a minimal head that leaves, somehow, a bit of lacing on my glass. There's a big, hoppy nose on this one, with citrus and pine two-dimensionally bludgeoning any malt aromas that might want to poke through. On the palate, this beer is all hops, with the malts serving mainly to form a smooth base on which to lay the hops rather than offering any flavor of their own. That said, the hops do have a pleasing citrus flavor to them, and the beer is quite smooth. One dimensional but still good.

Hazed amber. Short head of fine sand colored bubbles that settles to a skim coat and leaving a collar of lace. Ample lazy carbonation streams. Pine pitch and fruit rind dominate with some light toasted malt. There is a spiciness embedded in there as well. A light toastedness starts things off before falling back behind the piney and orange rind bitterness. The rind notes seem to be more prominent and generates a long finish. There is a nice interplay with adequate an malt backbone standing up to the hops, but the spiciness in the nose cannot be found. Medium body with a pleasantly carbonated mouthfeel. Drinkable for certain and a solid offering. Perhaps this will enter the regular MH rotation.

Labeled as MH Wonderbeer 374 on the tap list, shows off a dark mutes amber with a small but substanial, holding, ambered head. Smells of delicious piney hops. Something similar to 60 minute in the aroma...mmm. Taste is like a balanced amber IPA actually, with juicy, sweet, floral and piney hops being domanant, meaning my friends who don't go for hoppy beers weren't offended by it and drank it rather quickly, and were unquestioning of the "Amber Ale" tag. Is this really Magic Hat? This rivals my love for Jinx....The hops, to me, are strong, but there is plenty of malt, and due to hop selection, it seems balanced to the palate. Delicious. Light mouthfeel but not watery, with a good carbonation. Would this be as good in the bottle? Drinability is excellent, and I'd actually buy this, it's that good. It's not 60 minute, but it's tasty. Maybe I WILL try HiPA...

Taste - a layer of malty sweetness, coverd quickly by a dose of hoppage. As much citrus as bitterness, this is a really nice blend of hops. Not much balance to the malt side, but that's all for the better. A zippy red with some character. Great stuff.

Mouthfeel - medium body, kicked up carbonation, good, good...

Drinkability - quite quaffable, and most enjoyable with some chili, it turns out. Props to beachbum for hooking me up with this one.

Pours a nice ruby color, rather translucent with a little bubbly head, not much lacing. Looks like a red ale. Smell is more pronounced than a standard red, can really sense the floral hops and slight fruitiness. Taste follows with a taste that melds an IPA with a red ale, was expecting a lighter flavor. The light fruits are there, but are balanced with the flowery hops. This would be a great beer to have with some BBQ, but on its own it's a little less drinkable.

Pours a red-rust color thats bordering on brown. The off-white head is of moderate size, but has considerable staying power. The aroma has a little malt and a lot of fruit characteristics. A lot of citrus from hops sticks out immediately, followed by ripe peach, pear, and berries. A little caramel and vanilla follow in the mix. Its a relatively interesting and enticing aroma. A little more citrus comes out in the taste. Medium sweetness. Its occasionally a little harsh. Moderate carbonation and fairly good drinkability. Its good, but the brew really didnt excite me.

Taste is in your face with medium body. Big hop bitterness that flows from beginning to end. Taste is right along the same lines as the nose. Strong citrus peel astringent bite, carmel, toffee pine needles, oranges, lemons, grapefruit. Oily hop resin taste very reminisnat of Three Floyds Dreadnaught DIPA. As it warms it really starts to take on a strong tannic herbal or even chamomile type tea taste. Has a surprisingly mild finish. It lingers but not for very long.

Holy shit this is a good beer! If you didn't tell me I'd totally think this was Stone, Rogue or even Founders, wow!!! What an an amazing red ale. I could drink this all day. It's a shame next time I go to the store I'll be more likely to fine Mother Lager. Why must the best beers be one-offs? Get this while you can.

Came with the summer sampler pack I purchased (it was the "mystery beer"). Pours a brownish, amber color. Small head and a little lacing. As the case with a lot of Magic Hat beers, it was pretty sweet and fruity. Maybe a little too sweet but still a solid beer. A nice amount of hops to go with a citrus fruity flavor make it enjoyable and pretty easy to drink. I'd definitely have it again.

Pours a clear amber/copper color. Tan head of medium bubbles. Sweet grapefruit aroma. Taste is sweet grapefruit with a hefty backbone of malt that holds up quite nicely to the hops. Nice balance IMO. Almost creamy mouthfeel. A touch of astringency. The aftertaste starts with a pleasant bitterness with grapefruit and a touch of sweetness from the malt, but fades into astringency. This was a nice surprise as I havent cared much for there mystery beers in the past. Tone down the astringency, and this one is a keeper.

Thin ruby in color with shades of auburn. Creamy 1/2" off white head that lingers as a pasty sheet leaving thin lacing with decent strength.

Semi-sweet caramel malt with a creamy hint of vanilla. Fragrant citrus hop aromas: lemon and pine that are almost oily.

Lemon, apple, and pear flavors derived from the hops, followed by some bright pine notes. At mid-sip is a creamy coffee and light hazlenut semi-richness. A slightly dry finish with a creamy malt aftertaste.

A light medium bodied; well rounded: smooth, light, yet creamy.

Good flavors and a nice balance. Nice to see Magic Hat finally turning out some decent brews after axing Humble and HOD.